RISKY WORK ENVIRONMENTS AND METABOLIC DISEASE: CUMULATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF BAD JOBS IN EARLY AND MID LIFE

Abstract Approximately one in three adults in the United States have a metabolic disease or illness. Metabolic diseases and illnesses are particularly costly for older adults, often resulting from decreased human capital and increased health care-based costs in later life. Social contexts have been hypothesized to be a key contributor to later-life health; however, work environments are often understudied as a critical social factor shaping health over the life course. Utilizing new data from the Health and Retirement Study’s Life History Mail Survey linked to occupational work context data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), we examine how exposure to dangerous work environments over one’s working career relates to the likelihood of developing a metabolic disease or illness between the ages of 50 and 62. Results from logistic regressions suggest that dangerous work environment exposures, such as exposures to contaminants or hazardous conditions, are associated with increased risk of developing metabolic disease and illnesses between ages 50 and 62; however, these associations are dependent upon when in the life course people are exposed to dangerous work contexts and for how long people are exposed to dangerous work contexts. This study speaks to the growing need for understanding the role of occupations as an important social and contextual factor shaping population health. Specifically, findings from this study may better inform the development of social and organizational policies targeted at improving work environments in the US, thereby helping to reduce the risk of developing health-related challenges, including metabolic diseases and illnesses.


LIFE COURSE EXPOSURE TO RISKY WORK ENVIRONMENTS AND EARLY RETIREMENT DUE TO DISABILITY
Amanda Sonnega 1 , Dawn Carr 2 , Qize Chen 1 , Rebekah Carpenter 2 , and Katy (Qiuchang) Cao 2 , 1. University of Michigan,Ann Arbor,Michigan,United States,2. Florida State University,Tallahassee,Florida,United Sta tes Jobs that are physically demanding, stressful, and dangerous are typically associated with earlier onset of physical health decline and may be associated with increased risk of early retirement due to disability.Occupations reflect differentiation by race and ethnicity due to structural racism in the educational and judicial systems, and the labor market, with Blacks and Hispanics more likely to occupy jobs that are more physically demanding and dangerous.If such jobs lead to earlier retirement, they may exacerbate wealth disparities.We use new data from the Health and Retirement Study' Life History Mail Survey linked to rich job characteristic data from O*NET to characterize lifetime exposure to risky work environments based on levels of physiological and psychological stress.We evaluate differences by race/ethnicity in exposure to a wide range of risky work environments, explore whether they relate to disability retirement, and explore whether these associations differ by race.We show that there are large racial and ethnic differences in both the likelihood of disability retirement and lifetime exposure to risky work environments.Probit regressions controlling for education and cohort suggest that racial and ethnic differences in disability retirement are partly explained by lifetime exposure to risky work.Our findings may inform modifications to work environments that could improve the lives of workers in "bad jobs" and potentially reduce disparities in disability retirement.

RISKY WORK ENVIRONMENTS AND METABOLIC DISEASE: CUMULATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF BAD JOBS IN EARLY AND MID LIFE Rebekah Carpenter, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Approximately one in three adults in the United States have a metabolic disease or illness.Metabolic diseases and illnesses are particularly costly for older adults, often resulting from decreased human capital and increased health care-based costs in later life.Social contexts have been hypothesized to be a key contributor to later-life health; however, work environments are often understudied as a critical social factor shaping health over the life course.Utilizing new data from the Health and Retirement Study's Life History Mail Survey linked to occupational work context data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), we examine how exposure to dangerous work environments over one's working career relates to the likelihood of developing a metabolic disease or illness between the ages of 50 and 62. Results from logistic regressions suggest that dangerous work environment exposures, such as exposures to contaminants or hazardous conditions, are associated with increased risk of developing metabolic disease and illnesses between ages 50 and 62; however, these associations are dependent upon when in the life course people are exposed to dangerous work contexts and for how long people are exposed to dangerous work contexts.This study speaks to the growing need for understanding the role of occupations as an important social and contextual factor shaping population health.Specifically, findings from this study may better inform the development of social and organizational policies targeted at improving work environments in the US, thereby helping to reduce the risk of developing healthrelated challenges, including metabolic diseases and illnesses.The health of older Black and Hispanic populations are disproportionately impacted by cognitive decline later in life.Although cognitive stimulation through work protects against cognitive decline and dementia in later life, Black and Hispanic individuals have less access to cognitively stimulating employment opportunities compared with their white counterparts.This study aims to disentangle the relationship between work complexity and cognitive function later in life across racial/ethnic groups.Using nationally representative data from the Occupation Information Network (O*NET) linked to the Health and Retirement Study' Life History Mail Survey (n=1080), we examine how cumulative exposure to cognitively complex work between ages 25 to 55 is associated with cognitive function at age 70 in regressions controlling for cognitive function at age 55 and relevant socio-demographic measures.A composite measure of work complexity was constructed from making decisions and solving problems, thinking creatively, coaching and developing others, frequency of decision making, and freedom to make decisions.Results from regression analyses suggest that compared with cumulative exposure to less cognitively complex work, cumulative exposure to moderately cognitively complex work was associated with a 0.74 point increase in the cognitive score (p<0.01), and cumulative exposure to highly cognitively complex work was associated with a 1.25 point increase (p<0.01) in cognitive score.Among those who held moderately cognitively complex jobs, Black individuals experienced fewer cognitive benefits than their white counterparts later in life.Findings have implications for research and interventions addressing disparities in cognitive health among Black and Hispanic populations through employment-related policies and interventions.

INTRODUCING A NEW AGE-BASED DATASET FOR EVALUATING OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE
Qize Chen 1 , Amanda Sonnega 1 , Dawn Carr 2 , Rebekah Carpenter 2 , and Katy (Qiuchang) Cao 2 , 1. University of Michigan,Ann Arbor,Michigan,United States,2. Florida State University,Tallahassee,Florida,United Sta tes The connection between early life career choices and later life outcomes is a topic of interest to gerontology researchers, but research has been limited by data availability.In this paper, we present a newly constructed LHMS-HRS-O*NET linked dataset.The 2017 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Life History Mail Survey (LHMS) includes information on up to 10 jobs that respondents worked for more than a year.We consolidated this employment history with the biennial HRS Core survey data.Then, respondents' occupations from the LHMS were mapped to the O*NET 26.1 Database to add information on their exposure to different work contexts, activities, and etc.The final dataset is a panel at individual-year level with annual occupational exposure from the first job after full-time education until the last job people held before 2017.The data covers over 4,000 individuals in the HRS with all O*NET measures available in O*NET 26.1.This presentation will demonstrate how researchers can use these data to calculate the cumulative occupational exposures for any period of one's career and connect that information to socioeconomic, health, and other outcomes at older ages that are available in HRS.This new data is ideal for studying how full life histories of work are related to differential aging outcomes.

JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY SOCIAL SCIENCES: FEATURED 2022 EDITOR'S CHOICE ARTICLES Chair: Jessica Kelley
Social science inquiry on age, aging, and the life course spans many topics and methodologies.This symposium highlights papers that were selected as Editor's Choice articles in the Journal of Gerontology Social Sciences in 2022.These papers highlight methodological innovations, important advancements in our state of knowledge in an area, or emerging issues in the study of aging and older adults.
Moen et al. trace the divergence in later-adulthood work trajectories at the intersection of race, gender, and class.Hamler et al. discuss the impact of skin tone on mental health among older Black Americans.Waselmann et al. present an innovation of counting number of days one attended school and whether one lived in the Jim Crow South to help explain Black-White disparities in later-life cognitive function.Falzarano et al. explore cultural differences in orientation toward familialism and its impact on caregiver outcomes.Zimmer et al. examine the linkage between war exposure and later-life frailty among Vietnamese older adults.

THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN JOB COMPLEXITY AND COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN LATER LIFE ACROSS RACIAL/ETHNIC GROUP Katy
(Qiuchang) Cao, Dawn Carr, and Rebekah Carpenter, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States